[en] Echocardiography has become a routine non invasive cardiac diagnostic tool in most species. Accurate measurement of cardiac dimensions requires reference values, which are poorly documented in goats. Goats are animals easy to handle with a body and heart size comparable to humans’. This makes goats an attractive candidate for the development of animal models for human cardiology research.
The aim of this study was to test the repeatability and to establish the reference values of bi-dimensional (2D-), time-motion (M-) mode and pulsed wave (PW) Doppler echocardiographic variables in adult goats.
Six healthy female adult Saanen goats were investigated three times by the same observer at one day interval using a standardized 2D-, M-mode and PW Doppler echocardiographic protocol. Calculation of the coefficient of variation for each variable measured within day and depending on the day allowed to evaluate their degree of variability. A single echocardiographic examination was performed in 6 other goats by the same observer, and the obtained values were added to these obtained on the third day of the 6 first goats. Then the observed mean, the standard deviation and the range of these measurements were calculated to establish the reference values of echocardiographic parameters in unsedated adult healthy female Saanen goats.
Statistical analysis revealed a good inter-day repeatability of the 2D- and M-mode echocardiographic cardiac measurements, but PW Doppler parameters presented moderate to high variability, as documented in other species. Echocardiographic reference values obtained in healthy adult Saanen goats were similar to those reported in healthy adult sheep and in healthy adult humans.

This work was performed at the Equine Clinic, Faculty of veterinary Medicine, University of Liege, in collaboration with the Department of Cardiology, University Hospital of Liege, Liege – Sart Tilman, Belgium, and was supported by the French Community of Belgium (Actions de Recherches Concertées – Académie Wallonie-Europe).